Month: June 2019

The “No Outsiders” lesson programme has been at the centre of considerable controversy in the news recently, with parents protesting outside the Parkfield community school in Birmingham which adopted the programme. Below is a reflection given recently by the Revd. Mike Smith to the National Association of Head Teachers’ Conference about the “No Outsiders” programme

I would like to share here three of the great legal declarations pertaining to freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression in the UK. We need constantly to remind ourselves of these great legal principles, because what has been clear for over a decade is that these freedoms are now under serious

I recently read the Proslogion of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, written in 1077-78, together with the written criticism of Anselm’s argument by Gaunilo, a monk of Marmoutiers, and Anselm’s subsequent reply. In Gaunilo and Anselm’s correspondence over the Proslogion we see a wonderful example of how to argue graciously — an example which has a

I’m not generally a fan of Channel 4 or its ethos. However, I was pleased by its ‘Britain’s Most Historic Towns: Plantagenet Canterbury,’ broadcast on Saturday. Part of a series (actually a second series) in which each episode takes an historic town and examines a particular period of British history in which it played a

According to Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, the existence of God is proven from his being ‘that-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought.’ He sets forth this proof in his work, the Proslogion, written in 1077-78.[1] I recently had the joy of reading it in Anselm, Brian Davies, and G. R. Evans, The Major Works, Oxford World’s Classics

Last week I commented on a beautiful passage by the second-century Christian theologian Irenaeus (c. 180 A.D.) showing his belief in both the full humanity and the full divinity of Christ. One of the things that comes across loud and clear in that passage is that, for Irenaeus, Christian faith is biblical faith. Before we